


The heat that drives the light

by tinystreetlamp



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, New Year's Kiss, Pining, Yuletide, of a sort, Перевод на русский | Translation in Russian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinystreetlamp/pseuds/tinystreetlamp
Summary: “Alex,” she says, “maybe we won’t have our New Years kiss tonight.”Alex chuckles. “In fact, I was already thinking of kissing Henry at midnight, so yeah. You’re right.” He meets Nora’s eyes, genuinely, like he does everything, but Nora feels like he looks right into her soul. “Are you alright with that? You're my friend, right?”“Absolutely,” Nora says. “I’ll survive without one kiss.”“Maybe you should kiss June.”OR: It's New Year, and Nora may or may not kiss her best friend. (she will)Читайте на русском языке;переведеноseem_wrong
Relationships: June Claremont-Diaz/Nora Holleran
Comments: 12
Kudos: 79
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	The heat that drives the light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cerulean_irene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerulean_irene/gifts).



> Dearest Yuletide Recipient,  
> this is for you. I've enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it too. There's just something about this world that makes me want to not give up, you feel?
> 
> Big Big Thank You to my beta [xslytherclawx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xslytherclawx)
> 
> (title is from a Hozier song)
> 
> Update January 2021: now with a Russian translation! Thank you to [seem_wrong](/users/seem_wrong/) this is truly an honour <3 [Читайте здесь.](https://ficbook.net/readfic/10258435)

“Don’t get caught,” Nora reads, wondering who’d written it, and who had seen it before Alex found it.

“Yeah,” Alex chuckles. Alex had invited June and Nora up onto the roof with him, with just half an hour to spare until the first guests for the New Year’s party would be arriving. He was buzzing with nervous energy, and hadn’t stopped smiling for the last week.

“Isn’t getting caught all the fun, though?” June asks, smirking, because of course she would.

“Depends on what you’re doing.”

“You’d say that,” Nora muttered, but she was looking at June. Honestly, who wouldn’t?

“Well, um.” June glances at her phone distractedly, “This is pretty lit, but I gotta check on everything. See you later?”

With that, she climbs back inside, and Nora and Alex shiver in the crisp air. The night is clear, and despite the White House being in Washington, D.C., there’s a splatter of stars on the dark sky. Sometimes Nora thinks that instead of statistics and politics she should have gone to study physics and become an astronaut - but where would she be without Alex? And June. June was her best friend.

Even when Nora and briefly dated Alex, June had been her best friend. Alex was practically engaged to Prince Henry; Nora had a feeling that wouldn’t take long now. They’d have their one year anniversary today, too, and about that -

“Alex,” she says, “maybe we won’t have our New Years kiss tonight.”

Alex chuckles. “In fact, I was already thinking of kissing Henry at midnight, so yeah. You’re right.” He meets Nora’s eyes, genuinely, like he does everything, but Nora feels like he looks right into her soul. “Are you alright with that? You’re my friend, right?”

“Absolutely,” Nora says. “I’ll survive without one kiss.”

“Maybe you should kiss June.”

“What?”

“My sister, your best friend, the fashion icon?” Alex teases, smile bright as the summer sun.

“Oh, uh.” Nora fists her hands in her shirt and turns to stare into the night, letting the breeze flip her hair dramatically, cooling her warming face. “I don’t know.”

And she didn’t. Would she like to kiss June? Yes. Would June be okay with them kissing? Yes. But did June feel the same about her as she did for June?

“Think on it,” Alex says, and throws an arm around Nora’s shoulders. They’re silent for a while before deciding they really should get dressed for the party.

* * *

Henry, Bea and Pez are the first guests to arrive. Only five minutes later a big crowd arrives, and June drags Nora away from Beatrice and Pez, even though they are practically family by now.

But talking to people, talking to their friends and acquaintances, bantering with Alex, getting drinks, holding hands and dancing together - that’s never old. Never ever. And at midnight, Nora finds herself arm in arm with June, with Bea and Pez next to them, and Alex and Henry not even screaming the countdown with the rest of them but just staring at each other, all romantically.

 _“Three, two,”_ they all yell together, music still blasting, smiles on their faces, _“One!”_

What follows is a blink of silence followed by proper cheering, and Alex and Henry are kissing.

A tug on Nora’s arm brings her attention to June and, wow, June is really close, and looking at her, and her lips are right there.

Nora leans in. Her mind is fuzzy, but June’s lips are warm and soft and her tongue is wet but in the good way, in the best way. June returns the kiss, meeting every of Nora’s movements, and sparks are flying over and under Nora’s skin wherever they’re touching, wherever she could feel June’s body heat.

June’s _body._

And _oh._ She’s kissing June, and by now it’s probably a bit too long a kiss to qualify as a New Year’s kiss. Oops.

Very slowly, Nora leans back, breathing in sharply when she feels June’s teeth capturing her bottom lip. But the moment is over as soon as it began, so she blinks and smiles at June, June who is in front of her, looking like a tiny sun.

* * *

Nora wakes up in June’s bed the next day, and the first thing she notices is that they’re both fully clothed, passed out in each other’s arms on top of the sheets. And she has a hangover.

It’s a slow morning, as it’s just past noon, and Nora’s lips tingle from the memory of June’s lips.

She tries not to look at June too much, and she tries not touch her own lips in awe of what happened. So what if she’s just a little bit in love with June? Everybody crushes on their friends, right?

Alex is in the kitchen, cooking something, with Henry standing next to him, hair tousled and wearing a soft sweater. Nora mumbles a greeting and starts on coffee. Coffee is really the most important thing about morning. It’s just compost, sorta, but still - the best. The world would be nothing without that bittersweet life on her tongue, and Nora sighs when she finally takes a sip, nearly burning her tongue.

Ellen strides in just as Nora pours milk into June’s cereal, before helping herself and sitting next to June. Legs brushing under the table, she returns June’s smile.

“Oh, congratulations!” Ellen says, accepting a plate from Alex and sitting down in front of June. She’s in mom-mode, relaxed and not wearing a pantsuit. “How long since you realised?”

Nora blinks.

“... what?” June mumbles through chewing.

“You and Nora, obviously! I’ve been wondering, you know?”

Nora wants to laugh, and cry. Because she and June aren’t. They aren’t. Nora might wish they were, but. For June, it was just a kiss, wasn’t it?

Ellen looks between Nora and June, eyebrows furrowing, then her eyes widen. “Oh.”

“Um,” Nora says eloquently, like she isn’t an actual genius.

“Wait here, darlings,” Ellen announces, shovelling another mouthful of food into her mouth. “I already said something, I might as well tell you, that it’s, if you don’t already know, well, it’s nothing to be ashamed about, yeah? Look at Alex; he’s managed just fine!” She gets up, fishing her phone out of her back pocket. “Being in an open relationship is nothing to be afraid of, and I’m sure the public will be supportive of you, don’t worry. I’ll be back in an hour!”

And with that, she disappears.

“Oh,” Nora says. June’s eyes meet hers, soft and maybe a bit scared, but it’s nothing that Nora isn’t feeling.

“Lol,” Alex says out loud, “she’s gonna come back with a powerpoint. Don’t worry, it’ll just be extremely embarrassing -”

“Alex!” June says, breaking eye contact with Nora to turn to him. “I don’t know how she even got that idea, like, Nora and I aren’t -”

“June,” Nora says, because she is an actual genius and refuses to act like the kiss didn’t happen, “I like you. I wanna kiss you. I wanna _date_ you.”

June’s head snaps around, eyes wider than before, and her breath hitches audibly. “Nora.”

“June.” Nora smiles. “Go on a date with me? We can hide from your mom until dinner, and if we plan ahead, we can make it until dinner tomorrow night - her schedule tomorrow is set in stone.”

“I’m.” June swallows. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for months now. Yes.”

They’re smiling at each other now, and Nora carefully takes June’s hands, loving the way this simple gesture that they’ve done a million times has taken such new weight, such new meaning. June’s eyes are bright.

Henry clears his throat, and Alex chuckles.

“Go on,” Alex says, “we can cover for you.”

“We can’t, actually,” Henry disagrees, “but we can pretend to.”

“Yeah, okay,” June says and drags Nora from the room.

They’ve got a date. A real date. And when June pushes Nora against a wall and kisses her, it’s so much better than last night. They don’t get caught.

At least not until a few months later, in June, when Nora just can’t not kiss June at Pride. It’s a calculated risk.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Red White and Royal Blue is magical, I swear.  
> There's just something about the thought that Texas could go blue, yeah? Like, I'm not even American and I cried when that happened. Guess I spend too much time on [tumblr.](https://thespacebetweenworlds.tumblr.com/)


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